Mysterious Superstellar Arc?

General physics and astronomy discussions not directly related to Celestia

Do you think this is a valid Hypothesis?

Yes
1
17%
No
3
50%
Don't know enough to make an accurate assumption.
2
33%
 
Total votes: 6

Topic author
Tleilax
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Mysterious Superstellar Arc?

Post #1by Tleilax » 22.04.2005, 01:53

I was just star hopping in Celestia in utter boredom when I came across a most interesting find. About 88,000 light years from Sol, looking perpendicular to the plane of the Milky Way, I saw an unusually natural shape; an Arc/Circle. Probably consisting of hundreds of stars. I have provided two screenshots of this phenomenon: one is the original Celestia view, and in the other I have highlighted major stars that were in the arc to show the shape better. Sol is selected to give reference of the scale of the arc. (I have not edited Celestia or the images in any way as to falsify this shape.)

Normal
[/url]Image[/url]

Highlighted
[/url]Image[/url]

This shape might simply be due to the incompleteness of Celestia, which would be understandable; lol. But such an obvious circular shape would likely NOT occur in the random assortment of stars in Celestia. Nor would it occur with the 'seemingly' random assortment of stars in nature. My hypothesis is that this 'arc' is the product of a massive supernova. Billions of years ago, a very massive star hypernovad and as the eons passed new stars began to form in the resulting nebula. As the nebula expanded, its infant stars spread out. This nebula would have long since dissipated and now we are left with this arc of stars billions of years later. Usually, super novas explode in all directions, but on occasion, a nova occurs along the equator of a star or it's magnetic pole(s) etc. Thus this arc could be relatively flat instead of sphereical, from a normal nova. But this is speculation on something that could yet still prove to be incorrect. All of you more than likely understand what I'm saying. (Such a verbose explanation is not required on a forum full of astronomical intellectuals, lol.)

If my hypothesis is correct, there are some ways of proving it.
1. The stars must all be relatively the same age. But do not confuse a star's spectral class with its age. Massive stars go through the stellar cycle much more rapidly than a less massive star.
2. All the stars' vectors (proper motion) equal approximately ZERO. It is a law of physics that in an explosion or anything of the sort; a firework or a plash in a pond, the vectors of each piece of debris, when calculated together = ZERO.
(If anyone can think of further tests, fell free to post them)

Secondly this could be some galactic phenomenon. Possibly some event generated by the Milky Way as a whole. Also; could this be the result of a Gamma Ray Burst long ago, etc.

This is just a hypothesis and this 'arc' could simply be due to the inescapable fallibility of Celestia. I will look further into this, and see if my other stellar cartography programs have a simular event. And if nothing else, it would still make a fun, speculative, scientific paper. An event like this is probably VERY probable; whether this arc is a result of it or not.
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Post #2by PlutonianEmpire » 22.04.2005, 04:27

I highly doubt that this is the case in real life, unfortunately, for I have seen this in my celestia as well, so it is most likely part of celestia than a part of nature.
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Tleilax
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Post #3by Tleilax » 23.04.2005, 05:24

I was thinking that this is a Celestia fallibility, for I could not find anything of the sort in my other stellar cartography programs. But I do think that the principle of it is very fascinating. If arcs of stars could exist like this in other galaxies or simply on smaller scales, It could help Projection scientists get an idea of what are galaxy looked like long ago. You see my point. Although this Celestia 'arc' is a dud, there's bound to be something of the sort in our galaxy, but, probably on a much smaller scale, LOL...
Nothing suffocates you more than

the passing of everyday human events

Isolation is the oxygen mask you make

your children breath into survive



- Marilyn Manson

Matt McIrvin
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Post #4by Matt McIrvin » 23.04.2005, 16:48

The bubble has the Sun at its center, no? I'm thinking it's just a set of stars that have rounded-off distance values due to imprecise data. Stellar distances are extremely hard to measure.

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Post #5by MKruer » 23.04.2005, 17:38

Matt McIrvin wrote:Stellar distances are extremely hard to measure.

Na uh. You just need a really long tape measure. :lol:

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Tleilax
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Post #6by Tleilax » 24.04.2005, 03:33

Matt McIrvin wrote:The bubble has the Sun at its center, no? I'm thinking it's just a set of stars that have rounded-off distance values due to imprecise data. Stellar distances are extremely hard to measure.


Your'e probably right about that one, but the concept still fascinates me. Would it be possible to see the remnants of supernovas in the stars?
Nothing suffocates you more than

the passing of everyday human events

Isolation is the oxygen mask you make

your children breath into survive



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Post #7by Rocket Man » 12.05.2005, 16:56

Tleilax Said:
Would it be possible to see the remnants of supernovas in the stars?


The stars proboly be made up of the same elements in the stars as the orginal star. Since they have form in this "mega" nebula.

But from our point of view we proboly woundn't find anything simular to this. But if we manage to find this, this could bring a new class of nova, Hypernova, as you called it.




Very interresting.
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